Neighbours run into burning Ambarvale house to save woman
Two neighbours have been hailed heroes for risking their own lives to save an elderly woman from a house fire where her husband tragically perished. An electric blanket is believed to have sparked the blaze.
NSW
Don't miss out on the headlines from NSW. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Roy Lucas was asleep inside his southwest Sydney home on Saturday morning when he heard a panicked voice screaming for help.
Rushing outside he saw his neighbour’s home on Lavinia Place in Ambarvale engulfed in flames with elderly couple Claire and Flavio Mustone trapped inside.
“We heard someone banging on the door about 1am and he was yelling out ‘my mum and dad are inside and the house is on fire’,” Mr Lucas said.
“As I came across the lawn the mum was out the kitchen window yelling that the house was on fire.”
Mr Lucas and another neighbour, John Upston, have been hailed heroes for risking their own lives to save the couple from a fire that is believed to have started with an electric blanket.
They managed to pull 80-year-old Mrs Mustone out through a window but could not reach her husband, who had problems with mobility, in time.
MORE FROM AVA BENNY-MORRISON:
Female jail boss convicted of assaulting inmate
Bones lost in Missing Persons Unit bungle
A shaken Mr Lucas on Saturday recounted the desperate rescue effort and described trying to use a garden hose to battle the blaze.
Outside the burning home was the elderly couple’s son, who had burnt hands and was screaming about his parents stuck inside.
Mr Lucas went inside the home and got halfway down the hallway but was overcome by smoke and heat.
“I had my wife and kids outside screaming get out, get out,” he said.
“But I knew the old lady was in there and I didn’t want to leave. I did what anyone else would do and I went back in.”
About the same time, another neighbour, Mr Upston, ran down the street and clambered through a window that was slightly ajar.
“I had to throw a chair out of the way and table to get in,” the mechanic said.
“It was a hazy mist, full of smoke. I was just yelling out ‘is there anyone there?’
“I could hear a faint voice and I yelled ‘come to me’.
“A lady in a nightie, like a white ghost appeared right in front of my face. I picked her up and put her straight out the window.”
Taking off her dressing gown, Mr Upston’s wife, Joanne, wrapped it around a shocked Mrs Mustone’s shoulders and huddled with her on the grass.
“She was pretty calm but I think she was in shock. She kept saying ‘my husband is in there’,” Mrs Upston said.
“They had been married for 60 years.”
Meanwhile, Mr Lucas and Mr Upstone tried to reach her husband from a room above the garage.
“I doubled back to get him but I seen him and I knew he was gone. I didn’t want his son to see,” Mr Lucas recalled.
Mr Upston added: “I went back in again to look for anyone else.
“Once I got back, I went up the stairs to the second storey and the whole upstairs was full of flames. There was not much I could do.”
The elderly couple’s 56-year-old son suffered serious burns to his hands and face and is currently in the Concord Hospital Burns Unit in an induced coma.
Mrs Mustone was taken to Campbelltown Hospital for monitoring.
Campbelltown Police Area Command Chief Inspector Michael Moroney applauded the neighbours for their heroic actions.
“These neighbours have come to the aid of people in those premises and without hesitation, attempted to get inside the premises,” he said.
“It gives you faith in humanity.”
But Mr Lucas and Mr Upstone dismissed the praise, saying they did what anyone else would do.
“I wasn’t worried about my life, it was (Mrs Mustone’s) life. They could’ve been anyone’s parents,” Mr Lucas said.
“My dad or your dad - I wanted to help I suppose.”